‘Glee’ to Take on ‘Star Wars’ During Christmas Episode

Ah, Christmas — a time for crackling fires, happy families and … Hairy creatures? Not so much. Nevertheless, ‘Glee‘ will incorporate ‘Star Wars’ into next week’s ‘Extraordinary Merry Christmas’ episode, which means the A-list guest star will be none other than Chewbacca!

Matthew Morrison, who making his directional debut as the commander of the the holiday ep, sat down with Jimmy Kimmel to chat about the show and revealed that it will be an episode within an episode — sort of an ode to the single ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’ and the Judy Garland specials of Christmases past.

“We called up George Lucas, and he gave us Chewbacca,” Morrison said. “There’s only one guy who can officially be Chewbacca, and he lives in Northern California. They flew him in. We had Chewbacca for the day. It was just great. We were taking pictures with him. He’s been doing it for 12 years.”

While we learned via Chris Colfer‘s Twitter last month that Chewie would be making an appearance, we had no idea that he’d be a major plot line in the episode until now. Harry Shum Jr., who plays Mike Chang, further dove into the details, saying, “He makes an appearance into Artie’s dream in a way. I can’t really delve into the details, but it’s something to do with Artie.”

Shum also gushed that Chewbacca’s invitation to the ‘Glee’ set was a surprise to most of the cast, and the set was “like a mad house” when he wrapped up his scene. “Everyone’s face was so happy. They were showing off their pictures,” Shum said. “They actually got him to come back to take pictures with us, too. We were soooo angry that we didn’t get a picture with Chewbacca. It was so funny how many people actually love Chewbacca.”